The conventional internal combustion engine has been developed over the years to reach greater degrees of efficiency. However, the reciprocating piston engine is inherently inefficient due to the required reciprocating motion of the piston. The drive pistons are at rest and in a drag state for a significant portion of the stroke length, especially in four cycle, conventional automotive engines. A need has therefore existed for a more efficient engine.
Inherently efficient engines are the rocket engines currently in use for lifting huge payloads at extreme thrust and acceleration into orbit around the earth. The difficulty with jets and rockets in relation to land vehicles, however, is that they are reactive engines and work with thrust rather than compression and drive, and that a rocket is typically useful only for a short duration. Yet jet and rocket engines are significantly more efficient than internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,549 to Kellenbarger discloses an internally propelled flywheel engine. The flywheel is driven by thrust from exhaust ports leading outwardly from ignition chambers formed within the flywheel body. The engine is arranged with valving such that the exhaust gases are not constantly vented but are valved, as are intake and ignition portions of the operational cycle. It is also stated that this engine may make use of external combustion with pressurized gases being delivered through piping to various exhaust jets for the purpose of forcibly rotating the flywheel.
While greater efficiency may be available in the Kellenbarger engine, there remains a need for an engine using thrust or jet thrust for driving a flywheel that is efficient in construction and that may be easily adapted for different driving requirements, and in which the immediate reactionary forces may be instantaneously realized at the perimeter of the flywheel, thereby maximizing the operational efficiency.
It is a primary object of the present invention to introduce advanced technologies used in space industry, into practical domestic industrial applications, in a unique jet propulsion driven flywheel engine. The above and still further objects and advantages of the present engine will become more apparent upon reading the following description which, taken with the accompanying drawings, disclose preferred embodiments of the present invention.